EMBARK

still of video, Like Breath on a Mirror.

While considering the significant collective history of the Younkers Tea room in Des Moines, Iowa, and the subsequent fire that destroyed much of it, three themes emerged for the work to be included in the exhibition, EMBARK: impermanence, memory, and transformation. An equivalency of loss and renewal is sought by melting down a childhood sterling silver baby spoon and other personally meaningful objects into a flat form resembling early hand-hammered mirrors. The reflective nature of highly polished silver allows the viewer to glimpse herself, although distorted, in the transformed material of youth, and brings up subjects such as nostalgia and identity. The video work titled, “Like Breath on a Mirror,” conjures the anxiety of impermanence by making breath visible as condensation on glass, blurring the maker, slowly dissipating, and reminding us of our own short history.